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Title: PUTATIVE BLUETONGUE VIRUS RECEPTOR FROM THE INSECT VECTOR, CULICOIDES VARIIPENNIS.

Author
item Wilson, William - Bill
item XU, GANG - US ARMY MEDICAL BATTALION
item Mecham, James
item Tabachnick, Walter

Submitted to: International Symposium on Double Stranded RNA Viruses
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/1/1997
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: The process of bluetongue virus (BTV) infection is different in insect cells than in mammalian cells. This difference may be due to events that occur during virus cell-surface binding. We have demonstrated that VP7 is the virus protein involved in cell-surface binding to insect cells using a modified western blot procedure. Polyclonal anti- idiotypic antibodies (anti-Id), which were made against the antigen-combining region of an anti-BTV-10 VP7, bound to a 23 kDa protein present in membrane preparations of North American BTV vector, Culicoides variipennis and C. variipennis KC cells. This same protein was co-precipitated with whole and core virus particles incubated with solubilized membrane proteins. Purified VP7 was generated using an anti-VP7 column and used to generate an agarose-VP7 column. A semi-purified preparation of the 23 kDa protein was obtained using this agarose-VP7 column. This protein is present in much lower concentrations in membrane preparations of Aedes albopictus and Drosophila melanogaster cell lines. The demonstration of the interaction of this protein with BTV using a variety of procedures suggest it is a likely receptor candidate for BTV in the cells of the insect vector.